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THE AMERICAN SENATOR
accompany her. This in itself was to Mrs. Masters an aggravation of the evil which was being done. She was not in the least
afraid of Reginald Morton; but this attendance on Mary was in
the eyes of her stepmother a cockering of her up, a making
a fine lady of her, which was in itself of all things the most
pernicious. If Mary must go to Cheltenham, why could she not
go by herself, second class, like any other young woman? “Nobody would eat her,” — Mrs. Masters declared. But Reginald
was firm in his purpose of accompanying her. He had no objection whatever to the second class, if Mr. Masters preferred
it. But as he meant to make the journey on the same day of
course they would go together. Mr. Masters said that he was
very much obliged. Mrs. Masters protested that it was all trash
from beginning to the end.
Then there came a sudden disruption to all these plans,
and a sudden renewal of her hopes to Mrs. Masters which for
one half day nearly restored her to good humour. Lady Ushant
wrote to postpone the visit because she herself had been summoned to Bragton. Her letter to Mary, though affectionate,
was very short. Her grand-nephew John, the head of the family, had expressed a desire to see her, and with that wish
she was bound to comply. Of course, she said, she would see
Mary at Bragton; or if that were not possible, she herself
would come into Dillsborough. She did not know what might
be the length of her visit, but when it was over she hoped
that Mary would return with her to Cheltenham. The old lady’s letter to Reginald was much longer; because in that she
had to speak of the state of John Morton’s health, — and of
her surprise that she should be summoned to his bedside.
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
Of course she would go, — though she could not look forward
with satisfaction to a meeting with the Honble. Mrs. Morton.
Then she could not refrain from alluding to the fact that if
“anything were to happen” to John Morton, Reginald himself
would be the Squire of Bragton. Reginald when he received
this at once went over to the attorney’s house, but he did not
succeed in seeing Mary. He learned, however, that they were
all aware that the journey had been postponed.
To Mrs. Masters it seemed that all this had been a dispensa-
tion of Providence. Lady Ushant’s letter had been received on
the Thursday and Mrs. Masters at once found it expedient to
communicate with Larry Twentyman. She was not excellent
herself at the writing of letters, and therefore she got Dolly to
be the scribe. Before the Thursday evening the following note
was sent to Chowton Farm;
EAR LARRY,
D
Pray come and go to the club with father on Saturday. We
haven’t seen you for so long! Mother has got something to
tell you.
Your affectionate friend,
D
OLLY.
When this was received the poor man was smoking his
moody pipe in silence as he roamed about his own farmyard in the darkness of the night. He had not as yet known
any comfort and was still firm in his purpose of selling
the farm. He had been out hunting once or twice but fancied
that people looked at him with peculiar eyes. He could not
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THE AMERICAN SENATOR
ride, though he made one or two forlorn attempts to break his
neck. He did not care in the least whether they found or not;
and when Captain Glomax was held to have disgraced himself
thoroughly by wasting an hour in digging out and then killing a vixen, he had not a word to say about it. But, as he read
Dolly’s note, there came back something of life into his eyes.
He had forsworn the club, but would certainly go when thus
invited. He wrote a scrawl to Dolly, —” I’ll come,” and, having
sent it off by the messenger, tried to trust that there might
yet be ground for hope. Mrs. Masters would not have allowed
Dolly to send such a message without good reason.
On the Friday Mrs. Masters could not abstain from pro-
posing that Mary’s visit to Cheltenham should be regarded as
altogether out of the question. She had no new argument to
offer, — except this last interposition of Providence in her favour. Mr. Masters said that he did not see why Mary should not
return with Lady Ushant. Various things, however, might happen. John Morton might die, and then who could tell whether
Lady Ushant would ever return to Cheltenham? In this way
the short-lived peace soon came to an end, especially as Mrs.
Masters endeavoured to utilize for general family purposes certain articles which had been purchased with a view to Mary’s
prolonged residence away from home. This was resented by
the attorney, and the peace was short-lived.
On the Saturday Larry came, — to the astonishment of
Mr. Masters, who was still in his office at half-past seven. Mrs.
Masters at once got hold of him and conveyed him away into
the sacred drawing-room. “Mary is not going,” she said.
“Not going to Cheltenham!”
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
“It has all been put off. She shan’t go at all if I can help it.”
“But why has it been put off, Mrs. Masters?”
“Lady Ushant is coming to Bragton. I suppose that poor
man is dying.”
“He is very ill certainly.”
“And if anything happens there who can say what may
happen anywhere else? Lady Ushant will have something else
except Mary to think of, if her own nephew comes into all
the property.”
“I didn’t know she was such friends with the Squire as that.”
“Well; — there it is. Lady Ushant is coming to Bragton and
Mary is not going to Cheltenham.”
This she said as though the news must be of vital impor-
tance to Larry Twentyman. He stood for awhile scratching his
head as he thought of it. At last it appeared to him that Mary’s
continual residence in Dillsborough would of itself hardly assist him. “I don’t see, Mrs. Masters, that that will make her a bit
kinder to me.’
“Larry, don’t you be a coward, — nor yet soft.”
“As for coward, Mrs. Masters, I don’t know —”
“I suppose you really do love the girl.”
“I do; — I think I’ve shown that.”
“And you haven’t changed your mind?”
“Not a bit.”
“That’s why I speak open to you. Don’t you be afraid of her.
What’s the letter which a girl like that writes? When she gets
tantrums into her head of course she’ll write a letter.”
“But there’s somebody else, Mrs. Masters.”
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THE AMERICAN SENATOR
“Who says so? I say there ain’t nobody; — nobody. If any-
body tells you that it’s only just to put you off. It’s just poetry
and books and rubbish. She wants to be a fine lady.”
“I’ll make her a lady.”
“You make her Mrs. Twentyman, and don’t you be made
by any one to give it up. Go to the club with Mr. Masters now,
and come here just the same as usual. Come to-morrow and
have a gossip with the girls together and show that you can
keep your pluck up. That’s the way to win her.” Larry did
go to the club and did think very much of it as he walked
home. He had promised to come on the Sunday afternoon,
but he could not bring himself to believe in that theory of
books and poetry put forward by Mrs. Masters. Books and poetry would not teach a girl like Mary to reject her suitor if she
really loved him.
CHAPTER XXVI
LADY USHANT AT BRAGTON
On the Sunday Larry came into Dillsborough and had “his
gossip with the girls” according to order; — but it was not very
successful. Mrs. Masters who opened the door for him instructed him in a special whisper “to talk away just as though he did
not care a fig for Mary.” He made the attempt manfully, — but
with slight effect. His love was too genuine, too absorbing, to
leave with him the power which Mrs. Masters assumed him to
have when she gave him such advice. A man cannot walk when
he has broken his ankle-bone, let him be ever so brave in
the attempt. Larry’s heart was so weighed that he could not
hide the weight. Dolly and Kate had also received hints and
struggled hard to be merry. In the afternoon a walk was suggested, and Mary complied; but when an attempt was made
by the younger girls to leave the lover and Mary together, she
resented it by clinging closely to Dolly; — and then all Larry’s
courage deserted him. Very little good was done on the occasion by Mrs. Masters’ manœuvres.
On the Monday morning, in compliance with a request
made by Lady Ushant, Mary walked over to Bragton to see her
old friend. Mrs. Masters had declared the request to be very un-
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THE AMERICAN SENATOR
reasonable. “Who is to walk five miles and back to see an old
woman like that?” To this Mary had replied that the distance
across the fields to Bragton was only four miles and that she
had often walked it with her sisters for the very pleasure of
the walk. “Not in weather like this,” said Mrs. Masters. But
the day was well enough. Roads in February are often a little
wet, but there was no rain falling. “I say it’s unreasonable,” said
Mrs. Masters. “If she can’t send a carriage she oughtn’t to expect it.” This coming from Mrs. Masters, whose great doctrine
it was that young women ought not to be afraid of work, was
so clearly the effect of sheer opposition that Mary disdained to
answer it. Then she was accused of treating her stepmother
with contempt.
She did walk to Bragton, taking the path by the fields and
over the bridge, and loitering for a few minutes as she leant
upon the rail. It was there and there only that she had seen
together the two men who between them seemed to cloud all
her life, — the man whom she loved and the man who loved
her. She knew now, — she thought that she knew quite well, —
that her feelings for Reginald Morton were of such a nature
that she could not possibly become the wife of any one else.
But had she not seen him for those few minutes on this spot,
had he not fired her imagination by telling her of his desire to
go back with her over the sites which they had seen together
when she was a child, she would not, she thought, have been
driven to make to herself so grievous a confession. In that case
it might have been that she would have brought herself to give
her hand to the suitor of whom all her friends approved.
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
And then with infinite tenderness she thought of all Larry’s
virtues, — and especially of that great virtue in a woman’s eyes,
the constancy of his devotion to herself. She did love him, —
but with a varied love, — a love which was most earnest in
wishing his happiness, which would have been desirous of
the closest friendship if only nothing more were required.
She swore to herself a thousand times that she did not look
down upon him because he was only a farmer, that she did not
think herself in any way superior to him. But it was impossible
that she should consent to be his wife. And then she thought of
the other man, — with feelings much less kind. Why had he
thrust himself upon her life and disturbed her? Why had he
taught her to think herself unfit to mate with this lover who
was her equal? Why had he assured her that were she to do
so her old friends would be revolted? Why had he exacted
from her a promise, — a promise which was sacred to her, —
that she would not so give herself away? Yes; — the promise
was certainly sacred; but he had been cold and cruel in forcing it from her lips. What business was it of his? Why should
he have meddled with her? In the shallow streamlet of her
lowly life the waters might have glided on, slow but smoothly,
had he not taught them to be ambitious of a rapider, grander
course. Now they were disturbed by mud, and there could be
no pleasure in them.
She went on over the bridge, and round by the shrub-
bery to the hall door which was opened to her by Mrs. Hopkins. Yes, Lady Ushant was there; — but the young Squire was
very ill and his aunt was then with him. Mr. Reginald was in
the library. Would Miss Masters be shown in there, or would
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she go up to Lady Ushant’s own room? Of course she replied
that she would go up-stairs and there wait for Lady Ushant.
When she was found by her friend she was told at length
the story of all the circumstances which had brought Lady
Ushant to Bragton. When John Morton had first been taken
ill, — before any fixed idea of danger had occurred to himself or to others, — his grandmother had come to him. Then,
as he gradually became weaker he made various propositions
which were all of them terribly distasteful to the old woman.
In the first place he had insisted on sending for Miss Trefoil.
Up to this period Mary Masters had hardly heard the name of
Miss Trefoil, and almost shuddered as she was at once immersed in all these family secrets. “She is to be here to-morrow,” said Lady Ushant.
“Oh dear, — how sad!”
“He insists upon it, and she is coming. She was here before,
and it now turns out that all the world knew that they were
engaged. That was no secret, for everybody had heard it.”
“And where is Mrs. Morton now?” Then Lady Ushant went
on with her story. The sick man had insisted on making his
will and had declared his purpose of leaving the property to
his cousin Reginald. As Lady Ushant said, there was no one
else to whom he could leave it with any propriety; — but this
had become matter for bitter contention between the old
woman and her grandson.
“Who did she think should have it?” asked Mary.
“Ah; — that I don’t know. That he has never told me. But
she has had the wickedness to say, — oh, — such things of Reginald. I knew all that before; — but that she should repeat them
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
now is terrible. I suppose she wanted it for some of her own
people. But it was so horrible you know, — when he was so ill!
Then he said that he should send for me, so that what is left of
the family might be together. After that she went away in anger. Mrs. Hopkins says that she did not even see him the morning she left Bragton.”
“She was always high-tempered,” said Mary.
“And dictatorial beyond measure. She nearly broke my
poor dear father’s heart. And then she left the house because
he would not shut his doors against Reginald’s mother. And
now I hardly know what I am to do here, or what I must say to
this young lady when she comes to-morrow.”
“Is she coming alone?”
“We don’t know. She has a mother, Lady Augustus Tre-
foil, — but whether Lady Augustus will accompany her daughter we have not heard. Reginald says certainly not, or they
would have told us so. You have seen Reginald?”
“No, Lady Ushant.”
“You must see him. He is here now. Think what a differ-
ence it will make to him.”
“But Lady Ushant, — is he so bad?”
“Dr. Fanning almost says that there is no hope. This poor
young woman that is coming; — what am I to say to her? He has
made his will. That was done before I came. I don’t know why
he shouldn’t have sent for your father, but he had a gentleman
down from town. I suppose he will leave her something; but
it is a great thing that Bragton should remain in the family.
Oh dear, oh dear, — if any one but a Morton were to be here
it would break my heart. Reginald is the only one left now of
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